Children's Protective Services and Domestic Violence in Michigan

A domestic violence incident can lead to a Children's Protective Services (CPS) report when a child lives in the home, because police officers and many other professionals are required to report suspected child abuse or neglect.^[1] A report starts an inquiry; it is not a finding. Under Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) policy, the presence of domestic violence in a home does not support confirming abuse or neglect unless harm to the child is identified or highly probable.^[2]

If you or your children are in danger, the National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or by texting START to 88788; it describes its service as free, confidential and available 24/7.^[7] Local services are listed in where to get help in West Michigan.

This guide is part of a criminal-law reference library. It explains the reporting law and the published policy so that people involved in a criminal domestic violence case can see where CPS fits. Child protective proceedings are handled in the family division under their own rules, and a parent facing an investigation or a petition should speak with an attorney who handles those cases.

Who has to report, and when?

Michigan's Child Protection Law lists the people who are mandated reporters. The list includes physicians, nurses, psychologists, licensed professional counselors, social workers, professional staff of a friend of the court office, school administrators, school counselors and teachers, law enforcement officers, members of the clergy, and regulated child care providers.^[1]

A person on that list who has "reasonable cause to suspect child abuse or child neglect" must make an immediate report to the department's centralized intake by telephone or, if available, through the online reporting system. A written report must follow within 72 hours after an oral report.^[1]

Three kinds of contact after a domestic incident commonly involve a mandated reporter:

• The police response itself, since law enforcement officers are on the list.^[1]
• Medical care for anyone injured, since physicians and nurses are on the list.^[1]
• A child's school or counselor, since teachers, school counselors and licensed professional counselors are on the list.^[1]

The trigger is suspected abuse or neglect of a child, not the fact of an arrest.^[1] Whether an officer or a nurse reports in a given case turns on what that person saw and learned.

What counts as child abuse or child neglect?

The Child Protection Law defines both terms. "Child abuse" means harm or threatened harm to a child's health or welfare that occurs through nonaccidental physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation, or maltreatment.^[2]

"Child neglect" includes placing a child at an unreasonable risk to the child's health or welfare by failing to intervene to eliminate that risk, when the parent or other responsible person is able to do so and has, or should have, knowledge of the risk.^[2] This is the definition that most often comes up for the parent who did not commit the violence, and the words about being "able to do so" are part of it.

Is a child's exposure to domestic violence abuse or neglect?

Not by itself, under the department's own policy. The CPS manual states: "The presence of domestic violence in a home does not support confirmation of abuse and/or neglect without identified harm or harm is highly probable to the child."^[2] The policy continues that listed factors, "in addition to all other information and evidence, must be considered prior to reaching a disposition."^[2] Case managers are told to determine whether harm to the child has occurred or is highly probable "outside of whether the child was present" during the incident, and the questions listed include whether the child was injured, whether the alleged perpetrator threatened the child, and whether the child attempted to intervene.^[8]

The same policy directs investigators to interview the alleged offender, the non-offending parent and the child separately.^[2]

This is agency policy, in a manual section updated effective May 1, 2025.^[2] It guides how CPS workers reach a disposition; it is not a statute, and it can be revised. The Michigan Judicial Institute's Domestic Violence Benchbook does not itself address whether exposure alone is abuse.^[2]

How a CPS investigation works

1. First 24 hours. Within 24 hours after receiving a report, the department must refer it to the prosecuting attorney and local law enforcement, where the statute calls for that, or commence an investigation of the child suspected of being abused or neglected.^[3]
2. Contact with the parent. When an investigator contacts a person about whom a report has been made, the investigator must give his or her name, say whom he or she represents, and state the specific complaints or allegations made against that person.^[9]
3. Contact with the child. A school or other institution must cooperate, including by allowing access to the child without parental consent if the department determines that is necessary. The department must notify the person responsible for the child about the contact at the time or as soon afterward as that person can be reached, unless notice would compromise the child's safety or the integrity of the investigation.^[10]
4. Determination. In the course of its investigation the department must determine if the child is abused or neglected.^[9] A "confirmed case" means the department has determined, by a preponderance of evidence, that child abuse or child neglect occurred by a person responsible for the child's health, welfare, or care.^[4]

The statute also directs the department to take necessary action "to prevent further abuses, to safeguard and enhance the child's welfare, and to preserve family life where possible."^[9]

Confirmed, unsubstantiated and central registry

In the statute, "substantiated" means a confirmed case and "unsubstantiated" means a case that is not confirmed.^[4] A confirmed case is not automatically a central registry case. A central registry case means the department confirmed that a person responsible for the child committed serious abuse or neglect, sexual abuse, or sexual exploitation of a child, or allowed a child to be exposed to methamphetamine production.^[11] "Confirmed serious abuse or neglect" involves battering, torture, or other serious physical harm; loss or serious impairment of an organ or limb; life-threatening injury; murder or attempted murder; or serious mental harm.^[11]

Records

The department keeps a report that was the subject of a field investigation until the child is 18 years old or until 10 years after the investigation is commenced, whichever is later. Unless released under a specific provision of the law, the report is confidential and not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.^[12]

When does CPS go to court?

An investigation does not necessarily lead to a court case. A petition to the family division is mandatory, however, if the department determines that a parent, guardian, custodian, or an adult who resides in the child's home has abused the child or a sibling and the abuse included one of the listed forms, among them battering, torture, or other serious physical harm, and life-threatening injury.^[13] That list concerns abuse of the child or a sibling.^[13]

In a mandatory petition, the department must include a request for termination of parental rights if a parent is a suspected perpetrator, or is suspected of placing the child at an unreasonable risk of harm by failing to take reasonable steps to intervene.^[13]

Termination itself has a high threshold. A court may terminate a parent's rights only if it finds, by clear and convincing evidence, one or more statutory grounds, for example that there is a reasonable likelihood, based on the conduct or capacity of the parent, that the child will be harmed if returned to the parent's home.^[5] No ground names a domestic assault conviction as such.^[5] One ground does rest on convictions: it applies when the parent is convicted of a listed crime such as murder or criminal sexual conduct, or of a crime that has the use or threat of force as an element and subjects the parent to sentencing as a habitual offender, and the court determines that termination is in the child's best interests because continuing the relationship would be harmful to the child.^[6]

One evidentiary rule differs from criminal court. In child protective proceedings, every legally recognized privilege is abrogated except the attorney-client privilege and the privilege for a confession made to a member of the clergy.^[14] Other privileges are discussed in spousal privilege in Michigan domestic violence cases.

How CPS connects to the criminal case

A CPS investigation and a criminal prosecution are separate, and one can exist without the other. Several links between them are worth knowing.

• Possible child abuse charges. Fourth-degree child abuse includes knowingly or intentionally committing an act that poses an unreasonable risk of harm or injury to a child, regardless of whether physical harm results; a first offense is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 1 year.^[15] Michigan's domestic assault statutes contain no enhancement for committing the assault in front of a child.^[16] See domestic violence in front of children.
• A defense for a parent who was responding to violence. It is an affirmative defense to a child abuse charge that the defendant's conduct involving the child was a reasonable response to an act of domestic violence; the defendant has the burden of establishing it by a preponderance of the evidence.^[17]
• Deferred cases are visible to the department. MDHHS may use the nonpublic record of a case deferred under MCL 769.4a for enforcing child protection laws.^[18]
• Statements. The department must cooperate with law enforcement officials and courts in relation to preventing, identifying, and treating child abuse and child neglect.^[9] A person who is also facing criminal charges should get legal advice before giving a statement about the incident; see should you talk to police?

How CPS connects to custody and parenting time

A CPS investigation does not decide custody between two parents; that is done under the Child Custody Act. There, domestic violence is best-interest factor (k), considered regardless of whether the violence was directed against or witnessed by the child.^[19] A court may not count against a parent any reasonable action taken to protect a child or that parent from domestic violence by the other parent.^[20] See domestic violence and child custody and parenting time, supervision and exchanges.

Orders from other courts may also govern contact with the children while an investigation is open, including a personal protection order or a criminal no-contact order. Those are covered in PPOs, children and parenting time and no-contact orders and seeing your children.

What people get wrong

• "If the kids saw it, CPS will substantiate abuse." MDHHS policy says the presence of domestic violence does not support confirmation without identified or highly probable harm to the child.^[2]
• "A CPS finding uses the same proof as a criminal case." A confirmed case rests on a preponderance of evidence, as determined by the department.^[4]
• "A domestic violence conviction means losing parental rights." Termination requires clear and convincing evidence of a statutory ground. No ground names a domestic assault conviction as such; the conviction-based ground is limited to listed crimes and to force-element crimes sentenced under the habitual-offender statutes, and it requires a best-interests finding.^[5][6]
• "A dismissed deferral is invisible." The nonpublic record remains available to MDHHS for child protection purposes.^[18]